Federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale has revealed his hit-list of lower house seats the party aims to prioritise at the 2016 election, and taken on Labor in a pitch for the centre-left ahead of this year's poll.

Greens finance spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson, a former investment banker, has also revealed how the party's newly operational "lightning" decision group has helped them seal deals with the Turnbull government, some of which one senior Greens source said "would never have happened under [former leader] Christine Milne".

The change in tactics was on view this week when Senator Di Natale signalled he may change the party's opposition to genetically modified crops, after saying he was not philosophically opposed to them.

But in a sign of the tensions Senator Di Natale's leadership faces in keeping their base happy, NSW Greens issued a statement that appeared to press him not to make any changes.

"The Greens NSW, along with all other branches, reconfirmed the Australian Greens policy on GMOs [genetically modified organisms] at our recent National Conference in November 2015.

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"The Greens NSW are confident that the Australian Greens Party Room continues to represent our policy on GMOs," NSW Greens campaign manager James Ryan said.

The first Greens leader not to have spent time in jail for environmental activism, Senator Di Natale said 2015 has seen "a significant transition" for the party since he took over in May. "People have described it as a new generation of Greens parliamentarians," he said.

After coming under heavy attack from Labor at the end of the year after clinching two major deals over multinational tax transparency and foreign investment in agricultural land, Senator Di Natale said he wants this sort of pragmatism to define his leadership.

"My political philosophy is pretty straightforward: you always put the policy first and the politics take care of itself ... as long as you put the people and the future first.

"If anything is going to define my leadership, then I hope it is that," he said.

Two senators in each state

Senator Di Natale said he is confident the party can make progress on his aim of two senators in every state this year.

He says the party's internal figures have shown a 30 per cent rise in membership from the 2013-14 to 2014-15 financial year, from around 10,000 to 13,400 members nationally, and said he believed they had "significant success" in state elections.

"We've seen a big increase in our membership; I think our membership went up by 30 per cent last year nationally," he said.

He said he is expecting a "tough election", with all Greens senators up for re-election, and the party's "primary focus is on retaining our existing senators".

But he said they would also be looking to snare lower house seats.

"The seats of Batman and Wills are within reach and Melbourne Ports and Higgins are both seats we are looking for the future.

"In NSW you've got Grayndler in Sydney and you've also got the rural seat of Richmond, which is a seat which at a state level the Greens were able to out-poll the Nats and win that seat," he said, referring to the Greens' Tamara Smith win in Ballina.

Senator Peter Whish-Wilson agrees, saying he is far more confident of the Greens position in his own state than when he was first elected.

"Now I am feeling a lot more confident than I was two or three years ago when I started as a senator. With one year to go before an election I think Tassie is looking quite good," he says, attributing this partly to improvements in some sectors of the Tasmanian economy.

Labor labelled the party a "gutless sellout" when the Greens clinched a deal with the Turnbull government in order to expose publicly the amount of tax paid by companies linked to some of Australia's wealthiest families in early December.

Senator Whish-Wilson labelled the Labor campaign against the deal "hysterical" and "surprising"; Labor set up crowd-funded billboards and released a music video attacking the party.

Senator Whish-Wilson said their new national council, flagged in 2014 and established in May, to streamline member input, helped seal the deal.

"Decisions in the party room sometimes have to be made very quickly. We can actually go to this lightning decision-making group and say 'Look, we've got an opportunity and this is what we'd like you to consider it,' and they do.

"It doesn't mean we will always do what they want, but as long as they are included."

Agricultural land

The party also agreed to support the government's move to refer any investment in agricultural land above $15 million to the Foreign Investment Review Board, apart from some countries that Australia had trade agreements with – a move Labor said was discriminatory.

Senator Di Natale said it was down to getting an outcome close to their policy of a $5 million threshold. "Our view is you deal with what is in front of you, and that is the outcome that could be achieved," he said.

Looking to the year ahead, Senator Di Natale said he is keen to negotiate with the government on higher education reform.

"If the government was interested in talking to us about a redesigned higher-ed package, of course we would be prepared to discuss it, [but] the elements of the package are critical," he said.

Earlier in the year Senator Di Natale was negotiating with former prime minister Tony Abbott on increasing the excise on petrol. Senator Di Natale insists he was on track to extract a "significant investment in public transport" from Mr Abbott, before Labor agreed to pass the legislation.

"I thought we were close to getting a big win with public transport funding ... We were talking about a significant investment in public transport," he said.

The party is keen to continue its tilt towards having a bigger say in the economic debate in 2016, according to Senator Di Natale. "[We will be putting forward more costed policies through the parliamentary budget office that help us to address some of the budgetary challenges," he said.

Senator Di Natale hit out at the Labor party for their criticisms of their deals, saying it was a sign of the desperation of the party. "It's clear that at the moment the Labor party faces a very uphill challenge if it is to be re-elected," he said.